TREE DOMESTICATION BY THE WORLD AGROFORESTRY CENTRE AND PARTNERS IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON: lessons learned and future prospects Jonathan P. Cornelius TREE DOMESTICATION BY THE WORLD AGROFORESTRY CENTRE AND PARTNERS IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON: lessons learned and future prospects Jonathan P. Cornelius Correct citation: Cornelius JP. 2010. Tree domestication by the World Agroforestry Centre and Partners in the Peruvian Amazon: lessons learned and future prospects. ICRAF Working Paper no. 107. Nairobi. World Agroforestry Centre. Titles in the Working Paper Series aim to disseminate interim results on agroforestry research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community. Other publication series from the World Agroforestry Centre include: Technical Manuals and Occasional Papers. Published by the World Agroforestry Centre United Nations Avenue PO Box 30677, GPO 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Tel: +254(0)20 7224000, via USA +1 650 833 6645 Fax: +254(0)20 7224001, via USA +1 650 833 6646 Email: [email protected] Internet: www.worldagroforestry.org © World Agroforestry Centre 2010 Working Paper no. 107 The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and not necessarily those of the World Agroforestry Centre. Articles appearing in this publication may be quoted or reproduced without charge, provided the source is acknowledged. All images remain the sole property of their source and may not be used for any purpose without written permission of the source. 2 About the author Jonathan P. Cornelius Jonathan Cornelius is a forester with special interests in smallholder (agro)forestry and tree domestication. He has worked principally in Latin America (most recently as leader of ICRAF‘s work in Peru) and the Pacific. He currently leads James Cook University‘s Agroforestry and Novel Crops Unit (Queensland, Australia), where he is involved with agroforestry and tree domestication projects in Papua New Guinea and Far North Queensland. 3 Summary Background 1. The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) has been active in the Peruvian Amazon since 1991. In spite of changes in emphasis, organizational structure, and its collaborative arrangements, the broad focus of its work during this time has remained constant, i.e. the generation (through biophysical research) and facilitation (through biophysical and social science research and training) of means of preventing, mitigating, or reversing resource degradation. 2. The Amazon region makes up around 60% of Peru‘s terrestrial area. Much of the Amazonian population of around 3.85 million lives in poverty or extreme poverty. This situation is associated with a process of land degradation linked to increasingly short fallow periods, illegal coca cultivation, and conversion of forest to unproductive grasslands. The original forest cover has been lost from about 90,000 km2. Of this area, 55,000 km2 are considered to be degraded or abandoned. Degradation processes are most advanced in terms of magnitude and intensity in the Selva Alta (rainforest in the altitudinal belt 400- 2600 m a.s.l.). 3. Although ICRAF‘s work has targeted resource-poor farmers, the underlying justification, implicit or explicit, of this work has been environmental: to slow or halt deforestation and associated environmental degradation. For this reason, ICRAF research in Peru has focused on the Amazon rather than the principal concentrations of extreme poverty and tree scarcity (i.e. parts of the Andes). 4. Until 2003, a broad programme of research was conducted, i.e. across ICRAF‘s research programmes. Subsequently, due to increasingly scarce funds, research concentrated almost exclusively on continuation of the Tree Domestication Project (TDP) begun in 1995. 5. From 2003, as a response to diminishing funding, ICRAF also led the development of the Amazon Initiative Consortium. This process led to the approval in 2007 by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Science Council of the Amazon Initiative Eco-regional Program (AI-EP). 6. With the approval of the AI-EP and its associated thematic agenda, and due to the advanced state of the TDP, and also taking account of the new CGIAR structure and the ―MegaProgams‖ associated with it, ICRAF-Amazon decided to review its tree domestication activities in Peru. Accordingly, the present report, based partly on field visits and interviews in Peru in July 2009, was commissioned. Status quo ante relevant to the future of the TDP: AI-EP and ICRAF-global agendas 7. The AI-EP‘s four ―innovation foci‖ can be distilled to three essential components: identification of profitable products (tangible goods, environmental services, etc.); development of sustainable production systems for these products; creation of a favourable policy environment, potentially both in terms of removing constraints and of instituting positive innovations. Overall, the AI-EP agenda appears similar to the agenda that ICRAF and partners have pursued in the Peruvian Amazon since 1991, but with different institutional arrangements. 4 8. ICRAF‘s Global Research Program 1 (Domestication, utilization and conservation of superior agroforestry germplasm) has two research outputs: ―improved agroforestry tree germplasm available with associated information on potential use, benefits and conservation while considering climatic constraints and risks of invasiveness‖ (GRP 1.1); ―prototypes available for sustainable tree seed and seedling supply systems that promote the use of diverse and productive germplasm by smallholder farmers in different social, economic and cultural settings‖ (GRP 1.2). ICRAF considers one or both of these outputs to be relevant to six of the eight CGIAR MPs: MP1 (Agricultural systems for the poor); MP2 (Enabling agricultural incomes for the poor); MP4 (Agriculture, nutrition, and health); MP6 (Forests and trees); MP7 (Climate change); MP8 (Agricultural biodiversity). Status quo ante relevant to the future of the TDP: agroforestry practice and research in the Peruvian Amazon 9. Traditional agroforestry is practised commonly in the Peruvian Amazon, particularly by indigenous and ribereños (long-established mestizo and deculturated indigenous farmers of riverside lands). By contrast, tree planting or nurturing on a large scale by colonist farmers seems to be less usual. 10. Fruit trees are the species most likely to be planted by small farmers. Trees are also highly valued for timber, fuelwood, and construction, but are rarely planted for these purposes because of their high abundance in secondary and primary forests. 11. Illicit coca is one of the most important perennial crops in the Peruvian Amazon, particularly in the Selva Alta. This is due to factors that outweigh the disadvantages of illegality: (a) relatively high, relatively stable prices; (b) ready markets; (c) key agronomic advantages; (d) ease of processing, value-adding, and transport; (e) the real or perceived lack of alternative livelihood options. 12. ―Project agroforestry‖ (agroforestry promoted by development projects, typically consisting of practices novel to the target farmers) has been promoted by various development agencies, particularly in Selva Alta, but to date there have been few independently documented cases of clear livelihood benefits or widespread adoption. 13. By contrast, one form of traditional or semi-traditional agroforestry, cacao or coffee agroforestry with shade trees, is well established and associated with important export crops and important livelihood contributions. 14. Other more recently introduced or developed perennial crops, usually cultivated in monoculture, have also been associated with significant positive impacts on livelihoods, e.g. oil palm, camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia). 15. There is no reason in principle why species that conventionally are profitably cultivated as monocultures should not contribute to the positive economic, environmental or social impacts of ―agroforestry landscapes‖. 16. Smallholder farmers, with the exception of relatively prosperous landowners in the Selva Central (a zone located within 5-6 hours road access of Lima), have not adopted to any notable extent the plantation-based production of either fast-growing or high-value timber. 17. ICRAF studies have shown that in traditional agroforestry, the main sources of germplasm for farmers tend to be their on-farm trees, neighbours, fruit markets, and local remnant high forests. Farmers‘ germplasm sourcing practices for fruit and timber trees are different: the former tend 5 to be planted from seed, often with conscious selection, whereas seedlings for timber trees tend to be sourced as wildlings in neighbouring forest or crop fields. Physical shortage of germplasm is said not to be a constraint on traditional agroforestry practices. 18. Traditional germplasm supply systems are inadequate to supply the germplasm needs of development projects. In Peru there is no formal germplasm supply system for timber trees, so NGOs and other agencies are likely to experience difficulties in germplasm sourcing. For many native timber species of interest, and for exotics of interest, such as teak, there are no recognized seed sources. The situation in fruit species parallels that of timber trees. Although, for a few species, either traditional or breeders‘ varieties are available, for the majority of species of possible interest there are no improved sources or cultivars available. 19. Agroforestry research in the Peruvian Amazon can be classified in two categories that sometimes overlap: research published